Canadian Premiere
In her third film with VIFF mainstay Hong Sangsoo, Isabelle Huppert plays a mysterious Frenchwoman abroad in South Korea. Iris is her name, and as the movie opens she’s giving a most unconventional language lesson to Isong (Kim Seungyun), a novice French learner and amateur musician. Next in Iris’s schedule are Wonju (Lee Hyeyoung) and Haesoon (Kwon Haehyo), a couple for whom instruction will involve significant quantities of booze. As we follow this quirky lady through a series of encounters, Hong deploys suggestive repetition, with motifs that recur from scene to scene—only to break the pattern by introducing Iris’s much-younger boyfriend Inguk (Ha Seongguk)…
Hong is a major filmmaker of modest means: out of awkward social encounters, relatable human folly, and teasing enigmas, he’s built one of contemporary cinema’s most impressive oeuvres. Here he explores cultural difference with a unique method but typically humorous results. Much like the Korean poetry it showcases, A Traveler’s Needs is deceptively small-scale and delicately profound—a lovely little work of art.
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, Berlin 2024
Media Partner
Community Partner
Isabelle Huppert, Lee Hyeyoung, Kwon Haehyo, Cho Yunhee, Ha Seongguk
South Korea
2024
In English, French and Korean with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Hong Sangsoo
Screenwriter
Hong Sangsoo
Cinematography
Hong Sangsoo
Editor
Hong Sangsoo
Original Music
Hong Sangsoo
Hong Sangsoo 홍상수
Hong Sangsoo was born in Seoul, South Korea on Oct. 25, 1960. He studied at Chung-Ang University, California College of the Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He made his first feature film in 1996. Since then he has made 31 feature films and a few short films.
Filmography: The Power of Kangwon Province (1998); A Tale of Cinema (2005); The Day He Arrives (2011); Right Now, Wrong Then (2015); On the Beach at Night Alone (2017); Introduction (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Cookie Queens
A documentary about the annual Girl Scouts' cookie sale is probably not high on your list of must-sees, but don't be too sure — this movie is a delight, a rare celebration of girlhood, supportive family relations, and the art of salesmanship.
A Simple Machine
Cutting costs, swapping four wheels for two, Nick is downsizing to pay off his student debt. It's a path which leads to savings he had not anticipated, even if his girlfriend thinks he's losing it (and she may be right). A lean, low budget gem.
Jackie Brown
Take half a dozen characters who know they're in a fix, and give them half a million dollars to fight over. Tarantino's crime movie (his best) transcends genre in large part because in Pam Grier and Robert Forster it gives us people we truly care about.
Princess Mononoke
A mystical fight between humans and the Animal Gods of the forest. Ashitaka, the last prince of a dying race, struggles to find a way for both sides to co-exist. But the fighting only becomes more and more bloody and all hope seems to be lost…